Marriage lowers testosterone

Hormones range less on the homestead

Peter Ellison (left) and Peter Gray discuss how male testosterone levels differ between married and single men and among men of different cultures.

Results of a study done by a team of Harvard University anthropologists increase our knowledge of human biology — and may have implications for so-called “male menopause.” Researchers have long suspected that levels of testosterone — the hormone largely responsible for fighting, competing, and mating — decrease when men settle down and start a family. Other studies have shown that testosterone begins to decline shortly after marriage, but surges upward when unions end in divorce. “It makes sense,” notes Peter Ellison, professor of anthropology. “Lower levels of testosterone may increase the likelihood that men will stay home and care for their wives and kids, while decreasing the likelihood they will go out drinking with the guys and chase other women.” To pin down precisely how hormones vary between single men, married men without children, and married men with children, graduate student Peter Gray and his colleagues tested a total of 58 men in the three categories. Testosterone can easily be measured by analysis of saliva. The analyses showed little difference between married men with and without children, but both had significantly lower testosterone levels than unmarried fellows.

Three weeks after a remarkably nasty presidential election, emotions remain raw, as was evidenced when the Trump and Clinton camps met for the first time at Harvard Kennedy School for a debriefing conference this week.

A new Harvard center on health and happiness had its academic coming-out party Friday, hosting a daylong symposium that highlighted what science does and doesn’t say about the interaction of health and happiness, and identifying pathways where investigators should probe next.